I had to re-read your post before I realised that this was on your best list, rather than the worst list. I have this on The Pile, so I’m glad you liked it. I’ll put it further up the Pile. I do like a good time travel story.
I haven’t managed to get through many books at all this year. At the moment, the one I’d have to nominate for worst would be Jill Churchill’s A Midsummer Night’s Scream. Her books have always been lightweight but fun. This one wasn’t even fun.
Best:
What Happened To Henry by Sharon Pywell
Honorable mentions:
Annasi’s Boys by Neil Gainman
Half Human by Bruce Corville
Wizards At War by Diane Duane
Worst:
The Lake House by James Patterson
Eh:
Lord of The Flies by William Golding
Interstellar Pig by William Sleator
I know the ones I disliked aren’t newish, but they’re the worst I’ve read this year.
This is just off the top of my head:
Best:
Chinatown Death Cloud Peril Pulp writers acting like pulp heros, with cameo by H.P. Lovecraft and L. Ron Hubbard as comic relief.
The Hidden Assassins by Robert Wilson: Multi-layered novel of terrorism set in Seville, Spain.
Anonymous Lawyer by Jeremy Blochman. High-powered lawyer tries blogging, with disasterous results.
Middling:
Fragile Things: collection of Neil Gaiman short stories. Some great stories, some brief pieces and too much poetry.
Sandman: Yeah, finally got around to reading the whole thing. Really great stuff here, but it went on about 10 issues too long. It’s not going to stop me from buying the Absolute series, though.
Worst:
Nicole Kidman: Creepy book posing as a bio, but it’s really movie critic David Thomson wanking on about NK. Low point: His discription of a bordello fantasy involving Kidman, a Nazi officer and an elderly Chinaman.
Best: Daniel Abraham’s A Shadow in Summer (here is my review of it, if you’re interested). It’s high fantasy, the first in a short series (the author promised me, after I wrote to him), and it’s simply brilliant.
That book is only barely beat out by Lois McMaster Bujold’s Paladin of Souls. I only started reading Bujold this year, and she’s magnificent.
Worst: When Night Falls by Cait London (here is my review of this piece of offal, if you’re interested). Ghastly.
And among the most enjoyable reads were the first two books in the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. Harry Potter fans should check them out.
I know I’m leaving out some deserving entries, but here’s what my memory supplies:
Good:
The Commonwealth books by Peter F. Hamilton (Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained) . Space opera at its best. Needs a better proof reader, though.
The Magdalene Cipher by Jim Hougan. Enjoyable romp.
Bangkok Eight and Bangkok Tattoo : funny, gritty, and poignant crime novels.
Bad:
Matthew Reilly’s Seven Ancient Wonders. This is a c movie in book form.
That’s my best, too, just for that reason. It was also very entertaining.
Also, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfiled. I got this as an advance copy and though I love advance copies and dutifully read just about any that come my way, it’s rare to get a great one. This book was a little gothic delight.
Ptolemy’s Gate by Jonathan Stroud – the best of the Bartimaeus books, IMO. I love the wiseass narrator with all my heart. Lots of fun.
Worst:
Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis by Jimmy Carter – pedantic, dull, poorly written and full of passive voice – I like the guy, but I hated the book.
The Rottweiler by Ruth Rendel-- tediously creepy. Don’t bother.
The two books I’ve read so far this year, that were not part of any College class are:
Billy Bryson’s In a Sunburned Country and Michael Crichton’s Next.
In a Sunburned Country was a great book. Bill Bryson, for those of you who havent heard of him, is a famous travel writer. In this book he goes to Australia and talks about his expiriences there. It was hilarious, interesting and very well written. I would reccomend this book to anyone, no specific interest in travel or Australia is necessary to appreciate this book.
Michael Crichton’s Next was a big dissapointment. I am a HUGE Crichton fan, and I have loved all his books, except, suprisingly, Jurrasic Park. But besides that book, and his other novels have beem fabulous. Except his newest one, Next. It has way too many sub-plots. The book also manages to confuse you, because every so often Crichton will post articles regarding Genetics. Some appear to be true, and some are clearly false. Overall this book is confusing and a bit annoying.
If you are a Crichton fan, ignore this book.
Publishers Marketplace reported that sales for this one are lower than normal, too (though low for a single week for Crichton is closer to most mid-list authors’ entire print run of a book.)
Best: The Kite Runner Really interesting, well written, and one of those books which you just can’t stop thinking about
Honorable Mention: **The Curious incidence of the Dog in the Night-time ** & **Girl With the Pearl Earing ** (Neither are new, but new to me)
Worst: The Dogs of Bedlam Farm.
Best: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl.
If you liked Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, I’d highly recommend it. It made the NY Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2006 (and that’s both fiction and nonfiction, so technically it’s in the top 5 best fiction of the year), and for a debut novel, I think it’s fantastic. One of the best parts is that every chapter title is the title of a literary classic, which connect somehow to what happens in each. I can’t say enough about it. I loved it.
Worst: There’s not really a worst. I tend to be overly charitable when it comes to what I read.
Best: The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins – I enjoyed the manner in which he put It All In Perspective.
Honorable Mention: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. The guy can flat-out write.
I will most likely finish Team of Rivals (also mentioned upthread) by Doris Kearns Goodwin before the year is out, and it will also most likely be one of the best books I’ve read this year.
Worst: *Meg * by Steve Alten. I had read that it’s in development for a motion picture and the premise sounded interesting, so I devoted some non-refundable hours of my life to it. I’m sure *Meg * will be a better movie than it is a book. It would also be a better cucumber salad than it is a book.
Best: Probably Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. Funny as always, deep story of redemption, interesting characters, and tons of great quotes. If not Pratchett, then one of the three Alex Garland books I read: The Beach, The Coma and The Tesseract. The Coma was almost too short to even be considered a book, but great in its tininess.
Worst: I didn’t read anything really bad this year, but I can’t really remember much of Stephen King’s Song of Susannah, so it can’t have been very good. The same author’s Wizard and Glass was also a bit of a chore to slog through; a single novel-length flashback with little relevance to the story.
Woud you mind expanding a little on this one? It is (or was) on my ‘to read list.’
It was a rambling, plotless, pointless ego trip. I didn’t buy the book to read about the author, I bought the book to read about the author and his dogs. But mostly, I finally put it down when he recommended against rescue dogs because the parentage couldn’t be guaranteed (Both my dogs are rescues, and I used be a foster parent for Border Collie rescue). I was so angry, I never even finished it.
And the author had a dog destroyed because it didn’t get along with his other dogs. I will never get another Katz book.
Hmmm. See, I love history and I could barely get through that book; wound up skimming after awhile.
Best: Just finished William Mann’s new Katharine Hepburn bio, which was excellent (took Kate down a peg or two, which I rather enjoyed). Well-written, well researched.
Worst: An amatuerish, biased, badly-written and barely researched bio of poor Carole Landis. Yikes. Cringe-makingly bad.
It’s funny, Sampiro, I just finished Hannibal Rising and went to Amazon to see if others thought it was as terrible as I did, and I had read your review there before seeing this thread.
I will agree with you. I’ve really loved Harris’ writing. I seem to be one of the few who actually liked Hannibal. But, Hannibal Rising was just poor. Lechter, a previously fantastically developed character, somehow gets undeveloped in this book. Uninteresting plot, unbelievable situations, ridiculous characters. Just poor.
Best:
The Good, Good Pig: The extraordinary life of Christopher Hogwood. Picked it up on a whim at the library ( cause of the title) and was hooked on the well written life story of a pig.
It makes me want to die and come back in my next life as this writer’s pet.
No Idle Hands The Social History of Knitting in America. Yes, I know you are all going to race to your nearest bookseller to buy this one because you need to know all about Knitting History, thus completing your Education and raising your social standing a notch.
It is just a well written, well researched book ( I’m 3/4 of the way through it and enjoying it immensely.) If you like a book that gets into the detail of a micro subject ( like Salt, the history of. Tobacco and how an herb changed the entire history…) then this might be up your alley.
An Oldie…James Herriot Treasury for Children. I read it for myself and have bought a copy for the kids for Christmas.
Bill Bryson A Walk in the Woods. Every step of the way in this book I felt as if I were right there with him, watching Katz as he flung stuff. (Anything by him is time well spent.) I really want to read his latest one, about growing up.
I haven’t any books this year that have been A Worst or even Really Crappy.
I am itching to read: Cradle to Cradle : rethinking the way we make things. when it comes in at the library.
Well, shit. That’d piss me right off, too. I’ll just skip on over to The Good, Good Pig for my critter book fix.
Oh, do! It’s called The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, and I think it’s the funniest one yet. Heck, I guess it’s probably the book I enjoyed most this year.
Worst: The Chrestomanci Chronicles, by Diana Wynne Jones. These are children’s books I’ve been listening to on audiotape. The first couple were okay, but The Magicians of Caprona was so bad I gave it up halfway through, and I’m about to give up on Witch Week, as soon as I can get to the library for a different audiobook. If these weren’t being read by Gerard Doyle, I couldn’t have gotten through them.
Speaking of the library, that reminds me: Must cancel my hold on Hannibal Rising.
I’m right now in the middle of reading The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke, which is a set of short stories within the same “universe”. It’s a beautiful little hardcover, and the title story is (as one would expect) excellent.